A Sailor’s Post Card from Palau

By Geoffrey Walker

It would be a fair comment to make, that the majority of my many years spent at sea were on good sound ships mostly well managed. There is however, one exception, which, even years later causes me to cringe when thinking of it.

I was visiting the office, having just signed off another vessel and on my way back to Asia for home leave, when. I was suddenly asked by the Operations Manager if it would be possible to delay my leave for two weeks. This was because the Master on another vessel had been taken ill and a replacement was unavailable at short notice. The voyage would be very short, Lae to Malakal Port in the island of Palau, situated in the Western Pacific. I was not overjoyed but not wishing to leave the company in the lurch, I reluctantly agreed, provided it really was only for two weeks or there about.

So off I set to join the vessel in Lae. The ship was named “Western Trader”. Upon my arrival I found her alongside the jetty, virtually fully loaded and ready to go but being a cautious type, I checked all the ship’s documentation, charts, cargo manifests and consumables before departure. The cargo consisted of a full load of palletized tinned goods (mostly food stuffs), for Koror in Palau.

The Republic of Palau is an archipelago consisting of more than 340 Islands, it is an independent state, which geographically forms part of the Micronesian Group and is located in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles East of the Philippines. The main capital city of Koror is the commercial center with its adjoining Malekla Port. The anchorage for Koror is in a small lagoon like cove which is flanked on both sides by the town and residential areas. It is a very picturesque setting.

My steed for the solitary voyage was a small 1000 ton tweendecker, German-built and very sensitive in terms of her stability, despite a large ballast capacity for her size, but not helped by her high superstructure, tall Bi-pod masts mounted atop of high mast housings, which were designed to

accommodate the folded McGregor hatches beneath. She looked good but that was about it. The winches and hatch lids were all shot and the main engine and auxiliaries were not worth a cracker, according to her Chief Engineer who was an Australian. Originally, she had been built for the North European timber trade. Apart from the Master’s cabin all others were small and cramped to say the least, fitted with heating but no air-conditioning, making her unsuitable for working in tropical waters.The officers and crew were all from Papua New Guinea and a good enough crowd, but through no fault of their own had little if any, blue water experience. Anyway having satisfied myself all was in order we sailed from Lae.

Although the stability was positive in all respects, double bottom ballast tanks were all pressed up, the ship was still very tender and rolled from the outset, more than one would normally expect, even though the prevailing weather was quite good. We worked our way around the northern coast at a magical speed of 10 knots and for the first 24 hours all went well.

On the second day we had two stoppages, each of about 2 hours, due to main engine defects. The third day was similar with a couple of stoppages. This caused me to become concerned and I ventured to enquire of the Chief Engineer, if he had any doubts we could easily put into the small Port of Wewak or even Vanimo, but he assured me he had everything under control and the events of the past 2 days were quite common occurrences for this ship. With some hesitation I accepted his advice to continue towards Palau, but, as a precaution I replanned my courses to remain about 15 miles off the New Guinea Coast until abeam of Wewak, before heading North West, directly towards the Palau archipelago. This I concluded was the safest bet in case things went drastically wrong.

Map showing geographical location of Palau Archipelago in the Western Pacific Ocean.

The main engines were not our only problem, soon after we passed Wewak the ship’s Gyro Compass packed-up. There were only a few spares on board but none that I could use and despite my extensive troubleshooting, I was unable to rectify the defect. This meant that since the autopilot was linked to the

Gyro we had to revert to hand steering and Magnetic Compass. This was not a big issue and we managed the situation satisfactorily. We became involved in frequent Azimuths and it was only then I discovered the Mates were not very familiar with these requirements and didn’t recognize their importance. Fortunately, the ship was fitted with a Direction Finder which functioned well and I was able to home in on strong signals from Koror. This was particularly useful for me and a good check when crossing the various equatorial currents. Other than that I relied on my sextant as the ship up until that point had not been retrofitted with any kind of SatNav or GPS.

We progress towards our destination, in actual fact to one of the southern most of the Palau Archipelago, the Island of Peleliu. The Palau archipelago had become the bastion for the Empire of Japan in the Pacific as it was granted control of the island group by the League of Nations after WW1. It became heavily fortified by the Japanese in WW11 and was the site of the fiercest battle during the American WW11 Pacific campaign. Eventually, we made a good landfall on Peleliu Island, which in fact is quite low lying and can only be seen by the naked eye from about a distance of 10 miles. Our Radar set was very old and not very effective.

From Peleliu we made our way up along the western extremities of the archipelago, well clear of the outlying reefs which fringe the Island chain. We received our harbor Pilot at the entrance to the Ulong Channel. The reef lagoon is navigable to Malakal Port anchorage. Once arrived, we set about discharging the palletized cargo immediately, and I tried unsuccessfully to secure the services of a Gyro Compass technician. The Chief Engineer was however, successful in obtaining a small number of spares required for the main engine but insufficient to totally resolve the defects he had encountered.

Chart showing the navigable lagoon and small Anchorage “A” situated off the City of Koror. When we departed the Pilot used the Ngell Channel as we were proceeding to the South East. This channel was narrow and deep and the rocky sea bed was clearly visible through the crystal clear water as we passed safely above – it was spectacular.

We were only in Palau just over one day since the pallets were easily handled and loaded onto a lighter. The ship heeled noticeably during this process as we were using ships gear. The winches broke down with monotonous regularity but the Chief Engineer and his crew did their best to keep the job going.

I was required to go to the Ship Agents office, it was only a short visit ashore but I did take the opportunity to have a look around. I have to say, an absolute pristine paradise Island. It is stunningly beautiful everywhere. I was surprised to see so many Filipino Bars and souvenir shops. I bought several magnificent wooden carvings as wall hangings, exquisite in their detail and quality. According to the shop owner, they were carved by the inmates from the local jail who were permitted this privilege to make some income.

Everywhere there were beautiful little coves, fringed with lush trees and silver sand beaches with offshore reefs that were the brightest of turquoise in color. The surrounding waters were teaming with fish. It is therefore obvious why Palau is one of the most famous and sought after scuba diving locations in the world with magnificent resorts for the tourists. I understand there are regular flights from the Philippines, Japan and Guam, so the islands are easily accessible. I envied the tourists and wished I could remain longer, but I had to return to a clapped out ship instead. I promised myself I would return one day to enjoy this remote and well hidden gem of a secret.

Once discharged we wasted no time in departing and our Pilot took us to sea via the scenic route, the Ngell Channel. It was well used by short sea trading vessels the size of the “Western Trader”. The Pilot appeared very professional and exuded confidence, so I had no concerns using this narrow channel. Before we departed the Chief Engineer had carried out important maintenance on the Main Engine and assured me it would be OK for at least a few days, hopefully until we returned to Lae, which was scheduled to take us 5 days, weather permitting.

The beautiful Town of Koror in Palau, with the charming lagoon anchorage, in which we discharged our cargo. I understand that a new container facilities and jetties have been constructed since the time of my visit in the mid 1990s. Palau has also established a marine sanctuary for much of the fish and coral reefs and atolls that adorn their waters.

It was just coming on sunset once we were clear of the islands and into the open ocean. The weather was calm and as the sun dipped below the horizon so the heavens lit up with millions of stars dancing above. One felt as if one could reach out and grab them. The atmosphere was so clear. On the down side it was not long before we were surrounded by hundreds of illegal Chinese fishing boats. They were everywhere and just fished indiscriminately, catching anything and everything. Each of these little boats had hundreds of shark fins, strung out to dry. The Palau authorities tried their utmost to patrol their waters against illegal fishing but I am sure they would be no match against the numbers we came across.

Below, a typical illegal Chinese fishing vessel, similar to the hundreds we encountered during our fist night at sea after departing Palau. They, in fact, become a danger to navigation as they seldom if ever observe the Anti- Collision Regulations, or other Mariner’s codes.

As we progressed along our course towards the New Guinea coast, the full force of the South Easterly Trade winds developed and the increasing head seas did much to slow our progress, speed was down to about 8 knots at times. By now there had been another casualty, our HF Radio Transmitter. Now I only had VHF Radio as the HF set had broken down not long after departing Koror. I communicated the circumstances with the Owners by contacting other passing vessels on VHF asking they relay my position and situation report to our Owners. Luckily we passed within VHF range to a number of vessels that were willing to assist with my request.

The ship had broken down repeatedly on the way to Palau and coming back to Lae we almost came to grief; off Finschhafen, when we were transiting the Vitiaz Straits. Apparently, due to a repetition of th same serious overheating issues with the main engine, which caused it to shut down. Ship’s fire alarms were going off like mad with a strong smell of burning, which gained one’s complete attention, very quickly.

This occurred about 5am one blustery morning, during fresh SE'ly trade winds and seas. Knowing the engine was dodgy, it was lucky I gave the coast an extra-wide berth, but still, the ship carried a lot of leeway once stopped and was being set down towards the shoreline at an alarming rate of drift. The coastline was rocky and steep with water too deep to even contemplate dropping an anchor or any such remedial action. I quickly made the Chief Engineer aware of the pending dangers and that our fate was in his hands. Fortunately, he managed to get the main engine started again just in the nick of time, only about 1 mile offshore, narrowly avoiding the inevitable. I only had VHF Radio as the HF set remained broken down since not long after departing Koror

Once underway, albeit at reduced speed, we limped back towards our destination. Fearful of any kind of repetition I cautiously navigated even further offshore rounding the cape, which signaled the entry into the Huon Gulf, at the head of which were situated the Port of Lae and a little further south, Salamau.

I was so thankful to arrive in Lae without any further incidents and leave this troublesome vessel which had long ago seen better days. I warned my relief to be wary but whether or not he heeded my advice I do not know. The ship was sold out of the company soon thereafter, perhaps aided by my adverse report?

It was with pleasure I boarded my flight to Port Moresby to await my connection to Hong Kong.

End